Tag Archives: w&k

Two agencies are better than one, at least that is what the Wall Street Journal is reporting about Nokia’s decision to utilize creative hotshop Wieden & Kennedy as the lead creative agency with JWT (and their 196-office global network) adapting Wieden’s work internationally.

I know that it is padding the bottom line, but that arrangement can’t make the creatives at JWT all that happy.

And it doesn’t really burnish their brand.

At any rate, the major challenge with a shop the size of the House of Biz is that we do not have the institutional credibility of a bigger name place (not to mention a global reach). There is something to be said about the comfort that bigness gives to clients, especially clients that are big themselves, and Nokia has found a way to feel good about that while harnessing the creative abilities of a smaller, more creative-driven agency.

The Nokia arrangement bodes well for shops like mine.

The real question is the need for global advertising of the type that looks to adapt core creative to different markets around the world: it’s not a good idea.

The difference between the positioning and communication needed to succeed in 3G South Korea, for example, is different than in 2G America and different again for sub-Saharan Africa. The consumers are different, the marketplace is different, even the products offered are different. Something more than mere adaptation is needed.